


Beginnings

by DangerFloof



Series: A Two Parent, Two Bottles of Wine a Night Job [16]
Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Babies, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Feels, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Mild Language, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25257868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerFloof/pseuds/DangerFloof
Summary: Jocelyn shows off her new baby, Louise has an epiphany, and Bob and Zeke come to an understanding.
Relationships: Louise Belcher/Zeke (Bob's Burgers)
Series: A Two Parent, Two Bottles of Wine a Night Job [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1052096
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15





	Beginnings

It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in the last week of September. Lovely weather, perfect for pumpkin patches and forest hikes, just pleasantly cool enough for a jacket, the kind of weather that brings lots of tourists in from the woods around Seymore’s Bay, hungry for a hearty meal. Bob’s in the kitchen prepping for what he hopes will be booming business, thanks to his own creation (The Apple of My Eye Burger, topped with caramelized onions and apples) and Louise’s promotion on their social media.

He casts an approving glance at his youngest daughter, who’s currently maneuvering the big lugger full of mixed root veggies into the refrigerator. Bob’s still opposed to sweet potato fries—it’s the principle of the thing—but she finally convinced him that roasted autumn vegetables are delicious, seasonally appropriate, and an entirely different side dish. Plus, they’re so cheap this time of year, the margin they’ll earn will be epic. He gave in last weekend, and was delighted by how well the mixture of sweet potatoes, rutabaga, parsnips, and carrots sold. They make the whole restaurant smell like fall, and he knows they’ll be a good accompaniment to his burger.

“Thanks, Louise.”

She closes the door and flexes her arms. “Nothing two hours of chopping and dedicated gym work can’t do, old man.”

Bob chuckles. Louise has more than once encouraged him to make use of the Louise Lair in the basement, but Bob, remembering his and Linda’s disastrous workout at the gym that used to be next door, always declines. “You’re my muscles, Louise.”

“Hooray for me.”

Father and daughter exchange a smile. Bob’s pleased to see his daughter healthy and thriving again. She’s slim again rather than skinny, and has entirely lost the strained, almost haunted look around her eyes. She’s doing well at college, even the contemporary film class that bores her to tears and she calls credit hour filler. She has her own apartment with Daniel, whom Bob likes so much he hired the guy for weekends. Yes, Louise is really coming into her own.

The bell over the front entrance rings, announcing a new arrival.

“ _Heyyy_ , babygirl!”

Bob sighs; he’ll never get used to the way Louise lights up when Zeke drawls some sugary little endearment, and “babygirl” is altogether too much for him. Bob remembers when Louise was _his_ baby girl!

“Oh, hi Zeke, Jocelyn! And the _baaaaaby!_ Aw, lookit the little _baaaby_! Hello, Gracie Louise! Come out here and hold your namesake, Miss Missy!”

Louise groans softly. Zeke’s presence was expected; he was due to pick her up so they can go to the community college football game that evening. Jocelyn, however, is a surprise--nobody’s seen her since she gave birth last month. Louise turns pleading eyes to her father.

“Do I _have_ to?”

“Your mother won’t give up until you do.”

Louise pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs.

“You back there, darlin’?”

“Just a sec, jeez!”

Louise tosses her apron in the dirty laundry basket and takes her time washing her hands. Eager as she is to see Zeke, to start their evening together as soon as possible, she’s not looking forward to dealing with some smelly baby or her mother’s loud admiration for the infant.

Still, she can’t help smiling a little when she spots Zeke, also fresh off of his shift, so good-looking and professional in striped chef’s trousers and white t-shirt, his black chef’s coat probably still in his truck. He greets her with a broad grin of his own and pecks her lips, the glimmer in his eyes promising a much warmer greeting when they’re alone.

Linda, unsurprisingly, wasted no time getting her hands on the baby, loosely wrapped in a bunny-print blanket and wearing a tiny pink beanie. One chubby arm pokes out waves at Linda. “Look at those fat little cheeks! I want to eat you up! I could just eat you up! Om-nom-nom-nom-nom!”

Ignoring the walking embarrassment she calls a mother, Louise moves the stroller out of the way and sits next to her friend and former student on one of the bar stools. “Long time no see. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Jocelyn drawls, her smile bright, though the dark circles under her eyes reveal the strain of new motherhood. “I’ve been inside like, forever, and today was so nice I had to take Gracie for a walk. I met Zeke on the way here. He helped me get the stroller over the curb.”

Both young women smile at Zeke, currently hovering over Linda, clearly eager for his turn with the baby. “Ya don’t mind if I give Gracie a cuddle, do ya girl?”

“Sure,” Jocelyn agrees, so Linda, reluctantly, hands the baby over to Zeke.

He takes the child in his arms with ease and begins softly rocking her. “Hey there, li’l Gracie. I’m yer Uncle Zeke.”

It takes a minute, but eventually he feels four sets of eyes on him, the heavy-muscled bruiser sweet-talking a tiny infant. He looks up and shrugs. “I got a lotta li’l family, ya know.”

“Aw, so sweet!” Linda and Jocelyn coo, making Bob and Louise groan.

“Are you signing up for classes next semester?” Bob asks Jocelyn as he passes out glasses of water to the new arrivals.

“No,” she says with a little sigh. “Secretary work is hard! I mean, Louise tried to teach me and I’m, like, grateful and stuff, that’s why I gave Gracie her name, but I totally think I’m better off working for Grandpa P.”

Bob chuckles, knowing how much Jimmy Pesto hates being called “Grandpa P.” Louise showed Linda—and, at his wife’s insistence, Bob—all the photos Jocelyn’s posted of Gracie. She really is a cute infant, even sweeter looking in person, a pale pink cherub with her mother’s blue eyes, silky wisps of strawberry blonde hair, and a wee little cleft in her chin. Gracie’s been photographed being held and admired by all her family members except, notably, her father.

“It’s yer turn, babygirl,” Zeke declares, walking over to Louise.

“Yeah, Louise.”

“Ooh! I’ll get my camera!”

“Oh no!” Louise leaps up, glaring at her mother.

“Aw, nuts,” Linda mutters.

Jocelyn turns wide eyes to Louise. “Don’t you want to hold her?”

Louise is trapped and she knows it. Of course she doesn’t want to hold a squirming, crying thing prone to shooting something disgusting out of at least one orifice at any time without warning! But she also doesn’t want to hurt Jocelyn, who is her friend, after all.

“Fine,” Louise grumbles, flopping back into her seat. “For a _minute_. And no cameras!”

Zeke slides the baby into her stiff arms. Louise has never held a newborn before and it shows, her grip is awkward, and Gracie protests with irritated sounds and flailing arms.

“See, she hates it, I’m crap with babies, take her back!”

“Ya ain’t crap, ya just ain’t experienced. Here, lemme fix ya. Remember, yer _cradelin’_ her. Ya wanna support her head an’ neck an’ tushie.”

“ _Tushie?!?_ ”

“Yeah,” Zeke says confidently and seriously, clearly bemused by Louise’s barking laugh and Bob and Linda’s smiles. “When they’re that small, they’re tushies.”

“ _Tushie,_ ” Louise mutters. She allows him to adjust her arms, and is surprised that it works; Gracie calms down almost immediately. Louise peers into the round little face. The baby’s just over a month old and her eyes still wander, but eventually they seem to focus, like twin blue lasers, and stare directly into Louise’s soul.

_She’s a little person_ , Louise realizes with wonderment.

Of course, that’s a silly thought on the surface; she never thought babies were plants, after all. However, since babies can’t communicate ideas, and seem to do little more than scream, poop, eat, and sleep, Louise couldn’t, until this moment, recognize them as people. Humans, sure, but not _people_. It occurs to her that the little soft skull may not contain ideas yet—and probably won’t ever hold many, given who her parents are—but she has innate preferences, and she’s learning. Eventually, she will learn to walk, to clean whatever she excretes, and talk about whatever thoughts manage to enter her head. She’s…a person in training. 

“Hey, Gracie,” Louise says softly, wagging a finger at her. Gracie responds with a coo and gabs the waving finger in an iron grip. 

“Well, _someone_ doesn’t need to work out in the Louise Lair.”

She’s comfortable enough with Gracie now to give her a light little bounce, and the baby responds with a happy gurgle. Louise smiles back; she’s still convinced that babies, as a whole, are just screaming little shit machines. Now, for the first time, she can almost understand why someone might make one or two of them an exception to the rule.

Louise is unaware she’s being watched. Linda and Jocelyn are engrossed with mommy concerns. Gracie apparently has a minor case of cradle cap under her hat, and Jocelyn is just as eager to hear Linda’s suggested treatments as the older woman is to offer them. But Bob is watching Zeke, who is watching Louise.

Zeke stares at her with a self-satisfied air, so full of love and pride he could explode in a shower of scintillating red hearts. Just look at his beautiful woman holding the baby so carefully in her arms, her hard heart visibly melting, just a little bit, under Gracie’s influence! Neither he nor Louise is ready for babies yet, but watching her cuddle Gracie gives him hope she might make it there in the end. 

Besides, he can’t deny it’s nice to be smarter than she is at _something_ —he’ll teach her all about babies and small children, and she’ll teach him how to be a proper family man. He can just see it now, he’ll be the patriarch of a whole pack of strong, smart, beautiful boys and girls, all a bit wild, with Louise at his side! Their family will be loud and a little crazy, but with Louise’s guidance and his protection, they can’t go far wrong.

Zeke’s so engrossed with Louise and the daydream she inspires he’s completely unaware Bob is watching them with a slightly sad, wistful expression. He’s seen his daughter look like that at puppies, but never a baby, and Zeke’s face is easy enough to read. 

Bob remembers the first time he held Louise, a private moment between father and daughter while Linda, exhausted, snored away. Then simply known as Baby Girl Belcher, she was longer and lighter than her siblings when they were newborns, and swaddled in a white blanket like a burrito. Of course Bob loved infant Tina and Gene, but the papa bear passion that would drive him to take a bullet for his kids didn’t kick in until they were around a month old. Not so with Louise.

Bob took one look into Baby Girl Belcher’s scrunched face and fell instantly and ferociously in love with the tiny child he and Linda made. She wrapped him around her itty-bitty finger before he saw her with her eyes open, and he’s still there, still amazed he has such a daughter. And now that daughter is gazing sweetly at the infant in her arms, and the man she’s dating clearly wishes that baby were theirs.

Bob sighs deeply. “Zeke, could you come here a moment?”

“Yes, sir.”

Bob leads him into the kitchen. They can hear Linda and Jocelyn talking. Louise is silent; Bob knows she’s trying to listen in. He motions for Zeke to follow him down to the basement. They stop in the Louise Lair, next to the weight rack. Zeke eyes the dumbbells nervously.

“Do—do ya need me to move somethin’, Mr. Belcher?”

Bob shakes his head. He considers the younger man for a long moment. “Louise said you guys are going to a football game this evening.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Since when does she like football?”

It’s a fair point. Louise is fit, but not keen on team sports; she enjoys the violence and the potential injuries involved with football, but is uninterested otherwise. The main draw is the parties afterward--they’re fun networking events for Louise and Zeke. Louise gets along well with that crowd, but they’re Zeke’s people, he speaks their language, and his presence opens doors that she alone can’t. They’re a power couple of a sort, her with the weed, Zeke with the acid dots and ‘shrooms.

“She likes makin’ me happy.” It’s true; he loves football and they love spending time together, and it’s the only truth Zeke’s willing to tell her father. 

“Yeah, I see.”

“An’ I like makin’ her happy, too.” Zeke's no longer the older guy creeping around a teenage girl. Louise is an adult now, she chose _him_ , ignoramus that he is, and that fact gives him courage. 

“Yeah,” Bob sighs. “I see.”

The two men size each other up for a moment. Bob weighs his options carefully; Zeke's a bad boy who's a good man, and there's not much a father can do when his daughter is hooked by one of those. _Maybe it's not so bad_ , he decides. Bob still dislikes the underhanded way their relationship began, but otherwise he has no real objections to the guy; Zeke's loving, he's loyal, and he's obviously brave--he'd have to be, to take Louise on. He offers Zeke a small smile.

“Just keep on making her happy then.”

“As long as she’ll let me, Mr. Belcher.”

Bob nods. “You can call me Mr. B.”

Louise calls down from the doorway. “Hey, I don’t need to scrub blood off the walls down there, do I?”

“I dunno, do ya _wanna_ scrub blood off the walls or sumthin’?”

Bob chuckles as Louise climbs halfway down the stairs, her eyes narrowed with suspicion and concern. He can’t blame her: even a month ago, leaving Bob and Zeke together in the same room might have been a bad idea. Now? Well, they’ve come a long way.

“C’m on honey, I wanna wash off the day before we go out.” 

Still eyeing them over her shoulder, Louise climbs back up the stairs. “Then you’ll tell me what you two are up to, right?”

Bob and Zeke shake their heads. 

“Guy stuff,” Bob says.

“Nuthin’ fer you to concern yerself with.”

Louise blinks in astonishment, then pinches the bridge of her nose with a little chuckle. “Oh my God.”


End file.
